Pennsylvania’s Democratic attorney general objects to the company chosen by Republican legislators to audit the 2020 election, saying the two-man company has no experience.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro told a court that Envoy Sage LLC should not be granted access to personal data for more than nine million Pennsylvanians. Republican lawmakers reportedly hired Envoy Sage to conduct a forensic audit of the 2020 general election, as well as this year’s May primary.
The state’s attorney general said the two-employee company lacks election experience.
“Envoy Sage is committed to conducting a fair, thorough, and impartial investigation into Pennsylvania’s elections,” said Envoy Sage President Steve Lahr in a statement. “With decades of experience working under both Republican and Democrat Administrations at the federal level and no political affiliations clouding our judgement, we are entering into this project with no pre-conceived notions for what we will or will not find as we investigate the Commonwealth’s election systems and data.”
The Dubuque, Iowa-based company said its team has decades of experience conducting investigations that are complex and large-scale, and they regularly employ multidisciplinary teams that include analysts, technical professionals and digital forensic experts who have investigated multiple matters of national significance during their careers.
Shapiro said in a Twitter post that Pennsylvania Republicans want to send the personal, private information of nine million Pennsylvanians to Envoy Sage, a company he alleges is led by a Republican donor with no relevant experience.
“It’s a violation of your privacy,” Shapiro said, “and I’m suing to stop them.”
In a legal brief filed with a Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court, Shapiro and his group of lawyers reportedly complained there is no evidence the proposed auditing company has secure servers or data protection protocols. Shapiro, who recently announced his candidacy for Pennsylvania governor, further complains Lahr has donated to Republican candidates in the past and holds critical views of Democrats, tech companies and most media.
It is unclear if Republican legislators have sent Shapiro a book explaining how two inexperienced Washington Post reporters — Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein — did such a good job of exposing the 1972 Watergate coverup that their coverage was the proximate cause for the first resignation of a sitting U.S. President.
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